Interchanging Idioms

If Films use Classical Music, is Film Music Classical? And Should We Make Our Classical Musician's and Composers into Stars

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:08:00 PST

Greg Sandow has an interesting post "Unexpected Classical Music" talking about some wonderful moments in film where the action is set over versions of classical music. Add to this the recent tour of "Star Wars in Concert" or the Howard Shore tour of the music from "Lord of the Rings" and you begin to see there is a bleed over from classical music and film and how the two are marketed in our current society.

However, when ever you read articles of current classical composers very seldom do you see any references to the big name film composers - even though Britten, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Adams, Glass, all big names in the classical music world, also wrote music for film. Only recently has Korngold's violin concerto started to receive recognition as a classical piece. It wasn't written for a film, but since Korngold was such a big name in film his music has been "tarnished" with the "film but not classical" stain.

This is unfortunate. Because in Anne Midgette's article in the Washington Post, "Classical music has its day, albeit a muddled one, at the White House" there seems to be the general consensus in our society that classical music isn't fun - so the White House is trying to change that attitude. Yet, we are constantly exposed to classical music in film and television. So, if it isn't fun or entertaining why is the entertainment industry still using so much of it?

Perhaps what we need is a new perspective on what is classical music. Take out the stuffy image of grey haired concert goers and replace it with the hip and glitzy film and television red carpet treatment. Liszt and Beethoven used to be "Rock Stars" in their day. Ok, maybe John Williams isn't quite the dashing young stud we need for a glossy media image - but there are composers and performers out there who are. Anne wrote in her article:

"If the four performers had anything in common, it was their young, fresh, down-to-earth image, from Pratt's dreadlocks to Bell's signature untucked shirt and blue jeans at the afternoon concert for the students that followed the so-called master classes. "

Add to this the list of virtuoso performers who have that "star" potential, Hilary Harn, Sarah Chang, Olga Kern, Ingrid Fliter, Yuja Wang, Arabella Steinbacher, Lang Lang... and the list goes on (I didn't even mention the numerous opera stars who have multi-million dollar recording contracts). These are all young, extremely impressive musicians with both a flare for the music and the "look" that our modern media seems to want. Marin Alsop and John Adams both have engaging personalities and again, that look that makes them attractive in the press. Nico Muhly is an up-and-coming composer who has the same qualities (and is young).

However, Nico is writing film music (as is Adams). If we continue to think of film music as less than, or of classical music as older/stuffy - than we will not really appreciate what these artists have to offer. That's would be very unfortunate.

Divisions in Classical Music Thought

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:50:00 PST

Multiple Versions of what the future of classical music looks like

The idea that people differ on what the future of classical music will sound like is nothing new. Schönberg and Stravinsky didn't get along and had very different (almost explosive) views as to what classical music should be, or where it was headed. Prokofiev felt there was room for both "intellectual" music and for "popular" music in the pantheon of pieces available. Earlier there were those like Liszt or Paganini who felt music should be written for the performer and as complex as possible or the counterpart with composers like Mendelssohn who felt melody reigned supreme. Both schools of thought created great music, but the approach to the final product was very different. So whether your a serialist, minimalist, neo-classicist or some other "-ist" yet to be defined - don't feel the difference of your opinion with someone else's is revolutionary.

I say this because of a recent discussion around Steve Reich's comments in The New York Times "The Score" about the orchestra of the 21st century being a museum, an archaic ensemble form. I don't want to take his words out of context and what he was saying is not that the orchestra was destined to die. Rather, a new wave of smaller ensembles should be just as prevalent - for the most part I agree.

The symphony orchestra has been around since the days of Bach reaching a zenith in the early 20th Century with Mahler. There is still plenty of contemporary music being written for the orchestra, but not to the same scale as what Mahler demanded. John Williams is a prolific composer that loves the orchestra and uses it effectively. Howard Shore, Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer all are film makers that make their living composing orchestral scores. Yes, a film orchestra is considerably smaller (during the recording process) than a standard concert orchestra. But when these pieces are performed live that are not propped by synthesized sounds so full (even larger than normal) orchestras are required. The tour of Star Wars music is a testament to just this sort of event. Yes these are film composers, but only an example of some very famous current composers who write for orchestra.

There problem is most people are taking it that Steve Reich says the orchestra is or should be dead. These “most people” are generating a lot of noise as to how ensembles will look in the future based - and part of this is in relation to the shape of music being composed. Certainly there is a trend for modern atonal composers to want to allow for space and scarcity in their scores. John Adams (a modern composer) writes beautifully, yet sparse for the orchestra. Ever since Webern allowing tonal colors to be isolated and appreciated is more and more common. However, Webern utilized a full orchestra for many of his pieces as do other "atonal" orchestral composers of today. There are just fewer instruments playing at any given time to allow for the sound to have space.

It is easier to have this sort of space using smaller ensembles, fewer voices to concern yourself with. If you're using extended techniques, often these techniques doesn't produce the same volume of sound as standard performance practices so there is a need for less orchestration during these moment. With atonal music the concept that all pitches have equal weight is easier to hear with smaller ensembles, not that this is limited to atonal music by any means. All of this points to the use of smaller ensembles, but this doesn't mean these ensembles are the only version of the future of classical music. That would be like saying now that we have electric guitars there is no use for acoustic one – when even amplified acoustic guitars sound different than electric ones. Symphony orchestras are a different sound than small ensembles. Intimate music doesn’t translate very well to the large ensemble of the orchestra, and by the same token, full forces are hard to match with a small ensemble.

So what of electronics and the use of synthesized voices? While this is effective for "simulating" orchestral sounds for use in film and background music, it isn't to the point of replacing live performance sound. Non-orchestral electronics, taped, synthesizers and other such have been used with orchestras for some time now, but what I don't feel is real for live performance is simulated orchestral sounds to limit the number of players necessary on stage.

There is also a lot of great ensemble/chamber music that doesn't tend to get the 'featured' performances as symphony orchestras get today. Part of that may be the sheer numbers of performers in an orchestra, so to "break even" an orchestra needs to have a much larger hall with a lot more paying audience. But some great performers, Hilary Hahn did a recital tour last Summer with Valentina Lisitsa on piano at much smaller venues than when she was performing with the Baltimore or Liverpool Symphony Orchestras. These were still stunning performances.

The orchestra isn't dead, or even dieing – nor is it a museum piece. Maybe, with the economic climate, it may be more difficult for orchestras to make a profit (or even keep the lights on). Many are taking voluntary cuts to keep functioning - because the desire to have them still exists. Beyond the professional orchestras, there are a plethora of amateur orchestras which are really. If symphony orchestras were museum pieces we wouldn't have so many people want to both play in them and go to their concerts. As the Scot's would say, "There's always room for one more."

Yo-Yo Ma heads into the recording studio with Members of the Indaba Music community

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:39:00 PST

Yo-Yo Ma is going into the recording studio today to collaborate with the musicians that won his Celebrate and Collaborate contest on Indaba Music last year.

Through Indaba Music, the leading online music collaboration web application and social network, Ma made available a pre-recorded melody of the classic piece, “Dona Nobis Pacem” (Give Us Peace), a track off of his holiday album Songs of Joy & Peace. Members of the Indaba Music community, musicians from all over the world, were challenged to record a counterpart to Ma’s cello or create a set of variations based on the main musical theme. As their winning prize Yo-Yo will join these musicians in the studio on Wednesday to record Dona Nobis Pacem with them in person.

These tracks will be made available through iTunes as part of Songs of Joy & Peace.

Get Obsessive! Opera Colorado begins it's Season of Obsession November 7th

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:32:00 PST

Magnificent. Magical. Moving.A most memorable season...three stunning productions, each weaving its own mesmerizing tale of obsession. Indulge your passion for opera with this season's intoxicating combination of fantasy, comedy and heart-pounding drama.

Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann November 7, 10, 13 and 15, 2009A visually stunning journey of love and obsession, this vivid fantasy of a poet obsessed with four remarkable women – and the four villains bent on his destruction.

Rossini's The Barber of Seville February 6, 9, 12 and 14, 2010Pure joy and silliness abound in an opera filled with disguise, mistaken identities and madcap mayhem as the world’s most celebrated barber joins forces with Count Almaviva to win the beautiful Rosina.

Puccini's Tosca April 24, 27, 30 and May 2, 2010A ruthless police chief's obsession with a celebrated opera singer leads to betrayal and murder in this operatic thriller set among the historical landmarks of Rome.

Free Pre-Performance Lectures Opera Colorado’s artistic and education staff presents thirty-minute lectures prior to each performance. Lectures are held one hour before curtain time in the orchestra section of the theater. The lectures are free to all ticket holders. We invite you to join us to learn a little more about the opera and ask questions.

pianist Paul Lewis Returns with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:26:00 PST

Award-winning pianist Paul Lewis joins the Scottish Chamber Orchesta in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen between 5-7 November for performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3. He is reunited with conductor Andrew Manze, following their successful Mozart/Schubert collaboration in Edinburgh and Glasgow in January this year. The programme also features Schubert’s Symphony No 6 and Webern’s Five Movements Op 5.

Paul Lewis has recently performed Beethoven’s complete sonatas across Europe and North America, and released a critically acclaimed recording of the cycle on the Harmonia Mundi label. Beethoven wrote his Piano Concerto No 3 to play himself, at a time when he was going deaf. It was premiered, after a seven-hour rehearsal, in 1803. The concert closes with Schubert’s Symphony No 6 in C ‘Little’. Despite the name (it was described as ‘little’ to differentiate it from Schubert’s Symphony No 9, also in C major), this is a sweeping work, and the 21-year-old composer was clearly influenced by his contemporaries Haydn, Beethoven and, in particular, Rossini.

The SCO’s early evening series in Edinburgh, CL@SIX, continues on 24 November with Dvorak’s Wind Serenade and Strauss’ Suite in B-flat under clarinettist and conductor Joan Enric Lluna. The concert lasts just an hour, and takes place in St Cuthbert’s Parish Church, off Lothian Road.

November is brought to a close with the world premiere performance of the complete version of Edward Harper’s Second Symphony in a ‘Homecoming’-themed programme at Glasgow City Halls and Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 November. As well as paying tribute to the music of Harper, who died in April this year, the Orchestra celebrates the music of Kenneth Leighton in the 80th anniversary year of his birth with a performance of his Concerto for String Orchestra, and marks the 50th birthday of James MacMillan with his tour de force Tryst. Garry Walker, who conducted Harper’s Second Symphony at both the 2006 premiere and on the Delphian recording, directs the Orchestra in these concerts, and is joined by bass baritone Leigh Melrose.

Harper’s Second Symphony replaces Symphony No 3 ‘Homage to Robert Burns’ which was scheduled to receive its world premiere in these concerts. Harper had sketched out the first movement of the new symphony prior to his death, and the Orchestra has asked composer Lyell Cresswell to complete the movement with a view to performing it in the 2010/11 Season.

Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire and Mackey’s Slide highlight eighth blackbird’s 2009-10 Chicago season

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:19:00 PST

Pierrot on December 8 and Slide on March 24

eighth blackbird’s third consecutive season in residence at Chicago’s downtown Harris Theater is its most ambitious to date. The ensemble gives local premieres of two of its most highly-praised selections, the evening-long Slide by Steve Mackey and Rinde Eckert, which received its world premiere when eighth blackbird curated California’s annual Ojai Music Festival last June; and Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 numerological masterpiece Pierrot lunaire on December 8, in a production conceived and directed by Mark DeChiazza that was also first shown to audiences at Ojai this summer. DeChiazza is a New York dancer and choreographer with whom the ensemble has forged a strong working relationship. Slide, with music by composer, guitarist, and Princeton professor Steven Mackey and text by actor Rinde Eckert, will be revealed to Chicago audiences on March 24 in its second performance, at which there is much to look forward to, given the critical response to its unveiling at Ojai last June, ranging from the Ventura County Star to the Los Angeles Times.

“Slide has both wit and complexity... . The symbiosis between genres and styles that pervades this year’s densely programmed festival for a multi-tasking generation is the essence of Slide. ... A back story explained in detail in the program was almost required reading for anyone attempting to grasp the total concept, but even without that, it was possible for those with open eyes and ears to relish the wit and complexity of the work.” - Ventura County Star

“They are, as Juilliard Dean Ara Guzelimian said at the festival symposium Friday, ‘stage animals,’ often in motion, enacting their scores as they play them. They are without stylistic allegiances. Minimalism, Post-Minimalism, experimentalism, New Romanticism, old Expressionism, rock, smooth jazz, not-so-smooth jazz – all come easily and naturally. ... They brought to Ojai several of their like-minded, and in some astonishing instances, similarly multi-tasking, multi-talented friends.” - Los Angeles Times

eighth blackbird performs almost all of its extensive repertoire from memory, and the players often move about the stage in an almost choreographed way. The new Pierrot lunaire – presented in a program with works by contemporaries and pupils of Schoenberg – will be no exception. Tim Munro, eighth blackbird’s flutist, says of the ensemble’s newest performance piece:

“Mark DeChiazza uses movement and gesture to connect to the human core of this remarkable work, and the production includes soprano Lucy Shelton, dancer Elyssa Dole, and, in his impressive theatrical debut (!), our percussionist Matthew Duvall as Pierrot. Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire wears its 97 years incredibly lightly and has everything: feverish intensity, gallows humor, and touching pathos.”

As for Slide, its co-creator, Pulitzer Prize-nominated Rinde Eckert, says: “Slide is a rich tapestry of love, human frailty, the desire of control, and eventually the tragic consequences once we have attained it.” In Slide, Eckert plays Renard, an enigmatic psychologist struggling to describe an experiment examining subjects’ reactions to in- and out-of-focus slides. The results reveal that our decisions are based on habits or conventions that make it difficult for us to see clearly. Slide uses the experiment as a metaphor for today’s world, where persuasive images are employed to sell a commercial or political product. The work explores the seduction and manipulation of the American psyche, but also the effect of the experiment on Renard himself, who seems irreversibly changed by the experience. eighth blackbird and Steven Mackey create onstage characters in the story, and projected images play an important role. The goal is an unmediated exploration and expression of sound, text, movement, and image.

eighth blackbird has a Chicago-area schedule of several concerts and master classes. The ensemble performs regularly at Ganz Hall in the Contempo series, and at the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall. Windy City repertoire for this season includes audience favorites such as “Knight, Death, and Devil”, with works inspired by one of Albrecht Dürer’s most famous engravings, composed by Frederic Rzewski, Karim Al-Zande, and Andres Carrizo (Nov 14, Contempo); and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre with Dawn Upshaw (Nov 17, UC Mandel). The group has a Music Institute of Chicago residency (Dec 12, Highland Park); another Harris Theater appearance, titled “Where Jazz & Contemporary Music Intersect” (Jan 16); and it makes its debut in suburban Naperville with its wide-ranging program called “Still Life with Avalanche” (Jan 20). On February 13 eighth blackbird gives a lecture/demonstration in Evanston at Northwestern, and on May 14 and 26 the ensemble closes out its extensive Chicago season with a Contempo concert titled “Tomorrow’s Music Today”. Lucky Chicago!

National Keeping Score telecasts augmented by DVDs, Blu-Rays, and now CDs and On-Demand Steaming

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:14:00 PST

PBS Now Streaming Keeping Score Documentary Episodes On Demand

Coinciding with the current PBS telecasts of the second season of the San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score documentary series hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas, the orchestra is releasing on CD concert performances of all of the works featured in the series. The CDs include Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Ives’s Holidays Symphony paired with Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, Stravinsky’s Firebird and selections from The Rite of Spring, Beethoven’s Eroica and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

These CDs are in addition to the orchestra’s releases of all Keeping Score documentaries and performances on DVD, as well as the Season 2 documentaries and performances on Blu-Ray. The Season 2 Keeping Score documentaries, currently airing on PBS stations across the country (check local listings), explore the music and stories behind Hector Berlioz’s symphonic love letter Symphonie fantastique, Charles Ives’s sonic portrait of New England in his Holidays Symphony, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, a work that may have saved his life.

In addition, PBS is making all Keeping Score documentary episodes available for free on-demand.. The new Season 2 episodes (Berlioz, Ives, and Shostakovich), as well as previous Keeping Score documentaries on Beethoven, Copland, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky can be viewed on demand at http://video.pbs.org/searchForm/?q=Keeping+Score

If you have not seen these before they are incredibly well done! We reviewed this years series earlier with a glowing report. They production values are first rate and the information is presented in a clear, entertaining way.

Baltimore Celebrity Smackdown--VOTE for Marin Alsop!

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:09:00 PST

The Baltimore Sun is hosting a Baltimore Celebrity Smackdown on their website. The Smackdown began in early October and featured three preliminary rounds, followed by the current final round, which ends this Sunday. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Maestra Marin Alsop won all three preliminary rounds (against sportscaster Mark Viviano, newscaster Richard Sher and Baltimore Oriole and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Brooks Robinson respectively), and is now facing seven other competitors for the final round of the contest.

Show your support for Classical Music and vote for Marin Alsop!

President Obama appointed people to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:00:00 PST

J. Ricky Arriola, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Arriola is the President and CEO of Inktel Direct, where he oversees business development, operations and overall strategy of the business process outsourcing company. He is actively involved in the arts and humanities community in Florida, serving as the Chair of the Board of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.

Madeleine Harris Berman, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Berman serves on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of Americans for the Arts and the Boards of Directors of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Opera Theater and the Detroit Zoological Institute. She previously served on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 1994.

Richard J. Cohen, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Cohen is a Minnesota State Senator chairing the Finance Committee. He serves on the boards of the Tyrone Guthrie Theater and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Formerly, he was the chairman of the Arts, Tourism and Cultural Resources Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures, and this year he received the Public Leadership in the Arts Award from the Americans for the Arts.

Paula Hannaway Crown, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Crown is a Principal of Henry Crown and Company, a private investment firm, and an artist. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Modern Art, Duke University, the Executive Committee of the Chicago Community Trust, the National Council of the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Board of Advisors of the Nasher Museum of Art, the Women’s Board of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Conservation International.

Christine Forester, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Forester - an architect specializing in hospital architecture - switched careers in the 1980s to head Christine Forester Catalyst, a business, marketing and branding company. She served on the Board of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Board of the Museum of Photographic Arts; the Advisory Panel for the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture's Allocations Programs; and, currently, Scripps Institute of Oceanography's Advisory Council.

Teresa Heinz, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Heinz is the Chairman of the Heinz Endowments and the Heinz Family Philanthropies. She is a member of the Trustees Council at the National Gallery of Art and in 2001 was elected to be a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She founded and serves as chairman of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment and also serves on the board of trustees at the Brookings Institute and Carnegie Mellon University.

Victoria Strauss Kennedy, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Kennedy is an educational consultant for Loyola Marymount University. She has worked at Harvard University as Head Teaching Fellow for an undergraduate literature course, and as a Fellow for the Derek Bok Center. Ms. Kennedy is a youth coordinator and board member of a number of community service initiatives. She is co-founder of the Go Campaign and is currently designing a nautical children's museum in Washington, D.C.

Bryan Lourd, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Lourd is a Partner and Managing Director of Creative Artists Agency, an entertainment and sports agency. He also helped create the CAA Foundation, which facilitates members of the global creative community in contributing their time and resources to improve conditions locally, nationally and worldwide. Mr. Lourd is also a Board member of InterActiveCorp.

Anne Luzzatto, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Luzzatto served as Obama-Biden Transition Team review lead for the National Endowment for the Arts. She has also served as Vice President for Meetings, Council on Foreign Relations. During the administration of President Clinton she served as Special Assistant to the President and White House Deputy Press Secretary and Assistant US Trade Representative for Public Affairs.

Yo-Yo Ma, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Ma, a cellist and 2001 National Medal of Arts recipient, maintains a balance between his engagements as a soloist with orchestras throughout the world and his recital and chamber music activities. He has recorded more than 75 albums, won 16 Grammy Awards, and serves as the Artistic Director of the Silk Road Project.

Liz Manne, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Manne is an independent film producer and consultant. Formerly an executive with Sundance Channel, co-founder of Fine Line Features, and consultant to HBO Films, Ms. Manne has helped shepherd more than 100 independent films to diverse audiences. Ms. Manne is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Thom Mayne, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Mayne is founder of Morphosis Architects, co-founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture and Distinguished Professor at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, where he extensively researches and publishes on contemporary urbanism. Recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Mr. Mayne’s architectural projects include the San Francisco Federal Building, the Cooper Union academic building in Manhattan, Phare Tower in Paris, and the FLOAT House – an affordable, sustainable, and pre-fabricated housing prototype in New Orleans.

Edward Norton, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Norton is a two-time Academy Award-nominated actor, producer, and director. He is also engaged in social and environmental issues, serving on the Board of Enterprise Community Partners, National Landscape Conservation Foundation, Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, and Signature Theater Company.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Parker is an award-winning actress and producer, having won four Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. She is on the board of the New York City Ballet and she also serves as a UNICEF Representative for the Performing Arts and Goodwill Ambassador for the United States.

Andy Spahn, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Spahn is the President of Andy Spahn & Associates, an entertainment industry based consulting firm that specializes in public affairs, strategic philanthropy and communications. Prior to founding his company, he was the Head of Corporate Affairs and Communications for DreamWorks. He has spent more than 25 years in national politics and the non-profit world and is a founding board member of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.

Jill Cooper Udall, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Udall is a lawyer and former Officer of Cultural Affairs for the State of New Mexico. She currently works with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. Ms. Udall also sits on the Board of Visitors and Governors for St. John’s College, and the Boards of Directors for Ford’s Theatre, Santa Fe Conservation Trust, and the Meridian International Center.

Reginald Van Lee, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Van Lee is an Executive Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton. He is a published author and serves as the Chair of the Board of the Evidence Dance Company, Chair of the Board of the New York International Ballet Competition, Trustee and Treasurer of the Studio Museum in Harlem and Vice-Chair of the Board of the Washington Performing Arts Society.

Agnes Varis, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Dr. Varis serves as the founder and President of Agvar Chemicals and Modavar Pharmaceuticals. She is actively involved in the arts community, donating the Agnes Varis Performance Stage to Jazz at Lincoln Center, sponsoring children’s programs at the Metropolitan Opera, underwriting a senior citizen orchestra multi-seat program at the Metropolitan Opera, and underwriting the Jazz Foundation of America’s national educational children’s Jazz In School Program, which employs unemployed elderly jazz musicians.

Kerry Washington, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Washington is an award-winning actress. She is a board member of The Creative Coalition and is on the Artists Committee for Americans for the Arts, organizations which work to promote the arts in America. She is also on the board of V-Day, an organization dedicated to ending violence against women and girls.

Alexa L. Wesner, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Wesner is the founder of Blue Texas PAC and formerly co-founder and President of HireTECH, a high technology recruiting firm in Austin, Texas. In addition, she works with a variety of nonprofits and charities in Texas, including the Austin Film Society, The Blanton Museum, Breakthrough Austin, LifeWorks, SafePlace, and Arthouse.

Forest Whitaker, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Whitaker is an Academy Award-winning actor, director, producer and game developer. He is a social activist and is involved in several humanitarian and philanthropic causes for which he has twice received the Humanitas Prize. He has been honored with the Cinema for Peace award for using film as a medium to promote peace, freedom and tolerance and this year is being recognized as Patron of The Arts by UNESCO.

Anna Wintour, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Wintour has served as the Editor in Chief of VOGUE since 1988. She has also significantly contributed to fundraising efforts for AIDS research and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She spearheaded the Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion campaign to help fund emerging fashion designers.

Damian Woetzel, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Woetzel is a renowned ballet dancer, who performed during his career as a principal dancer at New York City Ballet. He is the founding Director of the Jerome Robbins New Essential Works Program, Director of the summer Vail International Dance Festival, and Cultural Programming Producer for the World Science Festival. Mr. Woetzel has served on the Harvard Task Force on the Arts and the Artists Committee of the Kennedy Center Honors.

George C. Wolfe, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Mr. Wolfe is a Tony award-winning theater and film director and playwright and served as the producer of The Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival from 1993 to 2005. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, and was declared a living landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

Alfre Woodard, Member, President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
Ms. Woodard's work as an actor has earned her an Oscar nomination, four Emmys, three SAG Awards, and a Golden Globe. She serves on the National Film Preservation Foundation Board, as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences International Outreach Committee. Ms. Woodard co-founded Artists for a New South Africa, a non-profit working to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and further Democracy and Human rights in South Africa and the United States.

Susan Graham, Now Met Opera’s Rosenkavalier, Will Be Purcell’s Dido in West Coast Concerts with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:18:00 PST

Susan Graham is garnering exceptional reviews for her return to the Metropolitan Opera as the 17-year-old Count in Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier. The New York Times declares the role of Octavian “one of Ms. Graham’s signature achievements”; the New York Post states that her “honeyed tone and smooth vibrato suggest a young man’s androgynous voice”; and, according to the AP, she “surpassed herself, singing with compelling urgency and aching beauty of tone, and creating an endearing portrait of an impetuous youth.” But the Queen of Carthage is waiting in the wings: the versatile Graham’s next engagements are concert performances of the oldest English opera in the repertoire, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, which she’ll sing six times in November in the Bay Area and Los Angeles with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra led by Nicholas McGegan.

Graham’s 2004 Virgin Classics recording of Dido and Aeneas earned praise not unlike that for her latest Octavian. The New York Times wrote of the CD: “‘When I am laid in earth’ is as wrenching an account as you’ll find on disc,” while Classics Today observed: “Susan Graham blends her signature warmth with a great deal of sweet wistfulness, particularly in the famous aria ... in which her melancholy is matched by a chromatically descending bass line.”

Immediately after her six concerts with the Philharmonia Baroque, a resident favorite in the Bay Area, Graham gives two recitals with her longtime piano collaborator, Malcolm Martineau. In Carmel, California and St. Paul, Minnesota, the two return to another area of repertoire with which Graham is very comfortable: French song. Last season, on their CD Un frisson français and the accompanying tour, they traversed French songs by nearly two dozen composers, earning enthusiastic reviews at home and abroad. Whether for the concert performances or the album, these reviews were all but interchangeable; a comment in London’s Sunday Times is representative:

“Graham’s superb pianist, Martineau, is the begetter of what he calls a menu gourmand, and with the help of Graham’s velvet mezzo and beautifully enunciated French, it is served up sumptuously.”

On New Year’s Day 2010, Susan Graham returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Octavian.

Performance Dates

November 5
San Francisco, CA
Herbst Theatre

November 6
Palo Alto, CA
First United Methodist Church

November 7 and 8
Berkeley, CA
First Congregational Church

November 11
Los Angeles, CA
Walt Disney Concert Hall

November 14
Davis, CA
Mondavi Center

November 29
Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
Sunset Cultural Center

December 2
St. Paul, MN
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Leon Botstein and American Symphony Orchestra Present “The Remains of Romanticism” at Lincoln Center on November 15

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:08:00 PST

Program Includes Richard Strauss’s Second Symphony and Works by Robert Fuchs, Siegmund von Hausegger, Hermann Goetz and Ludwig Thuille, Including the US Premiere of a Fuchs Serenade

With “The Remains of Romanticism”, their second Lincoln Center concert of the season (Sunday, November 15 at Avery Fisher Hall), Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra present proof positive that the alleged death of Romanticism through the advent of modernism around the turn of the 20th century was a myth – at least musically speaking. If Romanticism seemed in danger of becoming obsolete, music of this persuasion by many serious and successful composers saved it from extinction. Some of the greatest composers of the age tried to revive Romanticism through formal innovation, others by connecting it to a narrative or programmatic scheme. Unexpected examples by composers Robert Fuchs, Hermann Goetz, Friedrich von Hausegger, Ludwig Thuille, and Richard Strauss – at least one of which has never been heard before in the United States – are to be performed at the afternoon concert.

All tickets to the ASO’s Lincoln Center concerts are just $25 and are available by calling (212) 868-9276 (9ASO) or visiting www.americansymphony.org.

Leon Botstein’s program note for “The Remains of Romanticism” discusses the term “Romanticism” and its history in music:

“When we try to identify the features of the romantic in music beyond neat chronological boundaries, we find that though romantic elements make their appearance most famously in middle-period Beethoven, they may also be found in Mozart. Romanticism also did not lose its hold after its “era” had supposedly ended; well into the twentieth century, “conservative” composers continued to write in the Romantic tradition, and the familiar conventions of late nineteenth-century Romanticism inspire film music well into our own time. Since the mid-1970s, a more conscious revival of Romanticism in musical composition has flourished. “Having said that, a set of interconnecting characteristics stand out in the music on today’s program, all of which was composed in the twilight years of the romantic tradition.”

Hermann Goetz, the earliest of the five contemporaneous composers on the program, was born in 1840 and died young, a few days before his 36th birthday, from a long-existing case of tuberculosis. He originally studied mathematics and physics, but switched full-time to music, studying at Berlin’s Stern Conservatory. Despite his short composing career, he managed to write operas, choral and chamber music, two piano concertos, and a violin concerto (to be performed by soloist Mira Wang, who made her US debut with the American Symphony Orchestra in 2001 playing Roberto Gerhard’s concerto).

Robert Fuchs (1847-1927) was a relatively obscure composer in Vienna, but his Symphony No. 1 in C won him the 1886 Beethoven prize in composition given by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Fuchs was a highly influential teacher of composition, with Mahler, Sibelius, Schreker, Wolf and Zemlinsky among his pupils. His Serenade No. 1, Op. 9 (1874) – according to Grove, a “decisive success” at its first performance – is receiving its United States premiere at this concert.

Siegmund von Hausegger (1872-1948), born in Graz, Austria, was the son of Friedrich von Hausegger, a lawyer and writer on music and a passionate early advocate of Richard Wagner. Siegmund was influenced by the German master from an early age. Although better known in later life as a conductor and scholar than as a composer, Hausegger wrote music for the church as well as choruses, songs, operas and symphonic poems. Hausegger conducted in Graz, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Hamburg, and after World War I he served as conductor of the Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Wieland der Schmied, a 1904 symphonic poem, was inspired by a Wagner libretto for which he never composed a score.

Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907) began studying music seriously in Innsbruck, just over the Brenner Pass from his birthplace of Bolzano. Further education in Munich followed, and he eventually earned a professorship there. Among his students at Munich’s Akademie der Tonkunst were Ernst Bloch, Paul von Klenau, and Walter Braunfels. Thuille rescued the sparkling overture from his failed opera, Theurdank, turning it into the Romantic Overture, in which, according to Byron Adams’s program note, he “casts an affectionate backward glance towards the more innocent pre-Wagnerian romanticism of his beloved Schumann.”

While Richard Strauss (1864-1949) needs no introduction, his earliest works have received little or no exposure, including his Symphony, Op. 12, which is being performed in the place of honor at this ASO concert: at the end of the program. The young composer thought it a bit daring for the time, and a possible affront to his well-connected and conservative horn-soloist father.

Last season Maestro Leon Botstein began delivering pre-concert talks, starting 75 minutes before each concert; this policy continues this season. Don’t miss this illuminating talk, at 1:45 pm, in Avery Fisher Hall.

Sunday, November 15, 3:00 pm
Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center
The Remains of Romanticism

Robert Fuchs (1847-1927)    Serenade for Strings, No. 1, Op. 9 (1874) US premiere
Siegmund von Hausegger (1872-1948)    Wieland der Schmied, symphonic poem (1904)
Hermann Goetz (1840-1876)    *Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 22 (1868/80)
Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907)    Romantische Ouverture, Op.16 (1899)
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)    Symphony in f minor, Op.12 (1884)

American Symphony Orchestra
*Mira Wang, violin
Leon Botstein, conductor

Deutsche Bank Presents a Free Webcast of the Berliner Philharmoniker performing Brahm's Symphonies 3 & 4 - Nov 9

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:00:00 PST

Webcast precedes Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle’s U.S Tour November 11-24 featuring Brahms’s symphonies in concert

Deutsche Bank will present a free webcast of the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle performing Brahms’s Third and Fourth symphonies on Monday, November 9 at 8.00 p.m. EST on its website, www.db.com. The webcast celebrates the start of the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle’s U.S. tour that begins at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday November 11, and the recent release of the Brahms symphonies on CD.

In addition to three concerts at Carnegie Hall November 11-13, the orchestra will perform in Boston (Nov. 15), Chicago (Nov. 16), Ann Arbor (Nov. 17), San Francisco (Nov. 20 & 21) and Los Angeles (Nov. 23 & 24). All concert programs feature Brahms symphonies with the third and fourth symphonies being performed in New York (Nov 13), Boston and Ann Arbor .

To register for the free webcast, visit www.db.com and click on the link to the webcast on the homepage. For more than 20 years now, Deutsche Bank has been the exclusive partner of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Deutsche Bank’s generous support makes the orchestra’s groundbreaking Digital Concert Hall project possible and has also enabled the orchestra to set up an innovative education project, Zukunft@BPhil.

Meanwhile, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s 2009-10 Digital Concert Hall season continues on Saturday, October 31 when Sir Simon Rattle leads the orchestra in Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 and Arnold Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1, two other works that will be performed on the orchestra’s U.S. tour. The concert begins at 7:00 p.m. Berlin time (1:00 p.m EST/10:00 a.m PST) and will be webcast live at www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/dch Tickets are 9.90 euros, approx US$15.

Brahms’s second symphony and the Schoenberg chamber symphony will be performed in New York (Nov 12), Chicago (Nov 16), San Francisco (Nov 21) and Los Angeles (Nov 24). Full program and tour details follow.

The Berlin concert program on Oct 31 also includes Hans Krása’s Symphony for mezzo-soprano and small orchestra featuring soloist Eva Vogel. The concert is the ninth Berliner Philharmoniker concert to be webcast through the Digital Concert Hall this season. Over the season, 33 concerts will be webcast live from the Berlin Philharmonie and later become available on the site’s video archive.

Launched in January 2009, the Digital Concert Hall employs state-of-the-art technology that sets new standards in online dissemination of audio-visual content. Five HDTV cameras record the concerts, operated by remote control from a studio in the Philharmonie. Flash H.264 encoding ensures an excellent high-definition image, and audio is provided in AAC format with a data transfer rate of up to 320 kbit/s, achieving quality similar to a CD.

Access to the Digital Concert Hall is available by a subscription to the complete season (149€, approx US$220), a 30-day subscription (39€, approx $58) or individual concert tickets (9.90€, approx $15). Individual works are also available starting from 3€ (approx $4.40). Students receive a 30% discount. All subscribers receive access to archived concerts from the Digital Concert Hall’s first season in addition to the 2009-10 season. All tickets are available online at www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/dch with payment able to be made by credit card or through PayPal.

Berliner Philharmoniker & Sir Simon Rattle U.S. Tour November 11 to 24

Wed, Nov 11 at 8:00 p.m.
Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 (arr. Schoenberg)
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

Evelyn Herlitzius, soprano

SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No. 1
SCHOENBERG Erwartung
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2

Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

BRAHMS Symphony No. 3
SCHOENBERG Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene, Op. 34
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4

www.carnegiehall.org, 212.247.7800

Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston , MA

BRAHMS Symphony No. 3
SCHOENBERG Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene, Op. 34
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4

www.celebrityseries.org, CelebrityCharge 617.482.6661

Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Symphony Center , Chicago , IL

WAGNER Prelude to Die Meistersinger
SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No. 1
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2

www.cso.org, 312.294.3000

Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor , MI

BRAHMS Symphony No. 3
SCHOENBERG Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene, Op. 34
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4

www.ums.org, 734.764.2538 or 800.221.1229

Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco , CA

BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 (arr. Schoenberg)
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco , CA

WAGNER Prelude to Die Meistersinger
SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No. 1
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2

www.sfsymphony.org, 415.864.6000

Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles , CA

BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 (arr. Schoenberg)
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles , CA

WAGNER Prelude to Die Meistersinger
SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No. 1
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2

www.laphil.com, 323.850.2000

Opera Colorado Celebrates With 2009 Gala

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:56:00 PST

Concert stars Julian Gavin and Pamela Armstrong and features a tempting silent auction Special Guest Host: Lee Meriwether

DENVER, CO - Opera Colorado will celebrate an evening of opera and obsession with the 2009 Gala. The Gala takes place at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Friday, November 20 beginning at 6 pm.

The evening includes cocktails, a silent auction, a private concert hosted by Lee Meriwether featuring the stars of The Tales of Hoffmann, soprano Pamela Armstrong and tenor Julian Gavin, along with the Opera Colorado Young Artists. The evening concludes with dinner prepared by Kevin Taylor’s at the Opera House followed by dancing accompanied by the eight-piece ensemble, Sure Thing.

The “Indulge Your Obsession Silent Auction” will feature more than two dozen items such as travel opportunities, fashion accessories and other special indulgences, according to Gala Event Chair Merrill Shields. Items up for auction include a week’s stay at a pied-à-terre in Paris’ 15th arrondissement, a beautiful Hermès cashmere and silk shawl, a weekend at The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, beautiful designer jewelry and many other handpicked unique items and experiences. Auction items are currently available for viewing, bidding and advance purchase online at OperaColorado.org.

Cocktails and concert-only packages are available for $150. Tickets for full Gala packages start at $350 per person and include the entire evening’s entertainment. Sales Committee Chair Robert Swift notes that table packages are available starting at $5,000. Purchasing a table for the Gala offers many benefits and makes an excellent corporate entertaining opportunity. At the $10,000 level and above, guests are also welcomed to the exclusive Gala Patron Party. Complete information about Gala tickets is available at the website, OperaColorado.org/get-involved/gala, or by calling 303.778.7086.

Proceeds from the Opera Colorado Gala benefit Opera Colorado’s Education and Community Programs that annually serve more than 30,000 school children and adults throughout Colorado. "We are extremely grateful to the dedicated members of the Gala Committee who work so hard on this special event every year," said Greg Carpenter, General Director of Opera Colorado. "The support provided by this event is vital to our mission of bringing opera and music education programs to schools and new audiences throughout our state and region. We appreciate everyone who supports this event."

London Philharmonic Orchestra SOLD OUT for Denis Matsuev and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:47:00 PST

This concert is now sold out. However, you can watch the concert live from the Clore Ballroom in Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall (FREE, no ticket required)

In the true spirit of the American Dream, it was an immigrant – the godfather of Czech Romanticism Antonín Dvorák – who ignited the first flickers of concert-hall nationalism in the New World. Dvorák pre-empted America’s great black musical revolution as early as 1892: ‘the future music of this country must be founded upon African American melodies’, he prophesied on arrival in New York, ‘these beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil’. He didn’t stop there, either – injecting the spirit of the plantation song and the spiritual into an inspiring Slavic-American symphony that epitomises nobility, freedom, optimism and opportunity.

Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto was rejected out of hand by its dedicatee, the foremost pianist of the day, Nikolaj Rubinstein, who objected to its harsh demands and failed to appreciate its structure. Today, it’s not only the famous ‘big tune’ of the first movement that has won it audiences worldwide; this piece sparkles and dances as the piano and orchestra enjoy exchanges both delicate and passionate.

Concert Details
06 November 2009 7:30pm

Yutaka Sado conductor
Denis Matsuev piano

Verdi Overture, La forza del destino
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1
Dvořák Symphony 9 (From the New World)

London Philharmonic Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach perform Bruchner's 6th Nov 4th

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:39:00 PST

Petra Lang joins the orchestra for the Wesendonk-Lieder by Wagner

Bruckner was a sculptor of nine unmatchable, inimitable symphonies, the proverbial ‘cathedrals in sound’, and Wagner created truly epic operas requiring their own instruments, buildings and machinery to bring them to life as the composer envisaged them. Yet in this concert, both composers appear differently from their usual reputation. Instead of a lofty, gothic nave, Bruckner seems to build a work of Classical elegance, as the Sixth Symphony echoes the upright designs of Mozart, whilst Wagner presents us with a beautifully true and unalloyed song cycle, touchingly revealing his forbidden love for the poet Mathilde Wesendonk.

Concert Details
04 November 2009 7:30pm
Christoph Eschenbach conductor
Petra Lang mezzo soprano

Wagner Overture, Tannhäuser
Wagner Wesendonk-Lieder
Bruckner Symphony 6

Tickets £9 - £55

Classical Recording Foundation Announces 2009 Award Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:27:00 PST

New York, NY—The Classical Recording Foundation (CRF) is pleased to announce the 2009 winners of its annual Classical Recording Foundation Awards. Four distinct prizes will be presented at the Foundation’s Eighth Annual Awards Ceremony and Benefit at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (57^th Street and 7^th Avenue). The CRF Awards Ceremony and Benefit, for which the public may purchase tickets, will begin with CRF Young Artist of the Year Soyeon Lee performing Bach’s Chaconne from the Solo Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, as arranged for piano by Ferruccio Busoni. The program will also include performances by The Loma Mar >Quartet (Krista Bennion Feeney and Anca Nicolau, violins, Joanna Hood, viola, and Myron Lutzke, cello) with bassist John Feeney in Domenico Dragonetti’s Quintet No. 18; the Argento Ensemble in Imbrications and Three Diatonic Studies by CRF Composer of the Year Fred Lerdahl; and soprano Susan Narucki and pianist Donald Berman, recipients of the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award, in selected songs by Charles Ives. In addition, the 2006 CRF Young Artists of the Year – the Daedalus String Quartet (Min-Young Kim and Kyu-Young Kim, violins, Jessica Thompson, viola, and Raman Ramakrishnan, cello) – will return to perform selections from Haydn’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 20 No. 3, their recording of which was supported by the Foundation this year.

The Classical Recording Foundation applies the universal model of philanthropically-supported live concerts to the recording of new classical performances. Since 2002, when it was founded by Grammy Award winning producer Adam Abeshouse, it has supported more than 30 new recordings.CRF does not benefit from record sales or royalties, and depends entirely on support from generous individuals and corporations, as well as merit-based grants from public and private sources. The proceeds from the 2009 Classical Recording Foundation Award Ceremony and Benefit will go toward making the 2010 Awards possible.

Fred Lerdahl, the CRF Composer of the Year, will be honored for Music of Fred Lerdahl, Volume 2 (Bridge 9269). The album features his orchestral work Cross-Currents (1987), performed by the Odense Symphony Orchestra, Waltzes (1981) for violin, viola, cello and contrabass, Duo for violin and piano (2005), and Quiet Music for orchestra (1994). This disc presents a survey of the music of one of America's least known great composers. Fred Lerdahl's work has been much written about but rarely heard. Not a member of any school, he has forged his own path, writing works based on his own technique of expanding variations. At times tonal, at times atonal, these compositions sound like no one else's work.

The Loma Mar Quartet with John Feeney will receive the Classical Recording Foundation Award for their recording of Dragonetti’s New Academy (Bridge 9252). Bassist and early-music scholar John Feeney arranged the works on this recording which marks the first transcription and recording of this largely unknown music by Italian double-bass virtuoso and composer Domenico Dragonetti. Mr. Feeney engaged in an extensive study of Dragonetti’s manuscript collection in the British Museum, poring over the large collection. He and the quartet now introduce these undiscovered gems to modern performers and scholars through this important and engaging premiere recording.

The recipients of the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award are soprano Susan Narucki and pianist Donald Berman. They are being awarded this honor for The Light that is Felt – Songs of Charles Ives (New World Records 80680. This new recording features 27 songs by Charles Ives, beautifully rendered by renowned soprano Susan Narucki and pianist Donald Berman, who is widely respected as an authority in the interpretation and performance of Ives’ music.

The 2009 winner of the CRF Young Artist Award is pianist Soyeon Lee. She receives this award for her recording Re!nvented (Koch Records KIC-CD-7759). Ms. Lee presents an unprecedented platform for bringing exceptional classical music and environmental awareness together through her unique program, Re!nvented. The CD features selections that have in some way been reused, transcribed, or wholly revisited. The packaging for this release is made from chip bags collected by millions of school children in North America, and the CD is encased in a sleeve made from shredded and compressed Frito Lay bags.

About The Classical Recording Foundation: The Classical Recording Foundation was founded to catalyze and stimulate the classical music recording field by providing seed funding to record labels and artists of merit for recording projects. The projects are intended not only to enhance the classical catalog but to awaken both new and seasoned audiences to the joy of hearing great performances by committed and extraordinary artists. Unlike major labels, which are profit driven and therefore can commit only to a limited number of artists and repertoire, CRF encourages artists to release performances of their choosing, of music about which they are passionate.

Each Award is tied to a fund administered by the Foundation and the participating record company, to accomplish the tasks of recording and promoting the awardee’s recording project. The Award selection process begins with nominations by internationally renowned artists and scholars. Nominees are considered by an anonymous Grant Award Committee. Criteria for Classical Recording Foundation Awards include artistic merit of the project, historic significance, strategic value to the artist’s career, and breadth of interest.

Recent Classical Recording Foundation award recipients continue to receive accolades and success. Pianist Anne Marie McDermott’s release of Prokofiev’s complete piano sonatas (Bridge 9298) has received great critical acclaim. Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who was honored in 2006 and 2007, received the prestigious Diapason D’or Award for her Bach Goldberg Variations recording. Cellist Zuill Bailey, also honored in 2006 and 2007, signed an exclusive record contract with Telarc, and has released a recording of the Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich Cello Concerti, supported by CRF, with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. The 2007 CRF Composer of the Year, Justin Dello Joio, has been commissioned to write a piano concerto for Garrick Ohlsson. CRF, in collaboration with Bridge records, received its first Latin Grammy Nomination for Best Contemporary Composition for Barcelonazo, music for orchestra by Jorge Liderman. The Foundation was fortunate to receive a Copland Grant that provided partial funding for this recording. In 2008, CRF was awarded three Aaron Copland Grants, an Argosy Grant, and received continued support from the National Endowment for the Arts for its work on a new DVD release about eminent American composer George Crumb. This DVD is due for release in December 2009.

Artists who have benefited from CRF's support in previous years include the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, the Kalish-Krosnick Duo, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, Anne-Marie McDermott, Benita Valente, The Juilliard String Quartet, Andres Díaz, Judith Gordon, George Crumb, the Harmonie Ensemble, Paul Moravec, Inon Barnatan, Stephen Jaffe, Benjamin Verdery, Giora Schmidt, Rohan De Silva, Simone Dinnerstein, Zuill Bailey, The Daedalus String Quartet, Michael Harrison, Vassily Primakov, Justin Dello Joio, and Richard Wernick.

Annual Awards Ceremony & Benefit

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 8 pm

Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall

Fred Lerdahl

CRF Composer of the Year for Music of Fred Lerdahl, vol. 2 (Bridge 9269)

The Loma Mar String Quartet with John Feeney

CRF Award for Dragonetti’s New Academy (Bridge 9252) for premiere recording of Domenico Dragonetti’s unpublished String Quintets

Donald Berman and Susan Narucki

Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award for The Light that is Felt – Songs of Charles Ives (New World Records 80680)

Soyeon Lee, piano

CRF Young Artist of the Year for Re!nvented (Koch Records KIC-CD-7759)

Who: Classical Recording Foundation 2009 Awards Ceremony & Benefit

Program: Performances by the Argento Chamber Ensemble playing music by Fred Lerdahl, the Loma Mar Quartet with John Feeney performing Dragonetti’s Quintet No. 18, Susan Narucki and Donald Berman presenting songs by Charles Ives, Soyeon Lee performing the Bach-Busoni Chaconne; and the Daedalus Quartet performing music by Haydn

When: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 8 pm

Where: Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 57^th Street and 7^th Avenue, NYC

Tickets & Information: Call 914.738.8754 or visit www.classicalrecordingfoundation.org

$75 donation (Award Ceremony only) and $250+ donation (Award Ceremony and Reception).

Attire: Festive but not formal

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra getting ready for December

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:30:00 PST

Handel’s Messiah

Friday, December 4, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. – Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH)

Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.—Todd Performing Arts Center

Edward Polochick, conductor

Georgia Jarman, soprano

Julie Bouilanne, mezzo-soprano

Ryan MacPherson, tenor

Michael Dean, bass-baritone

Concert Artists of Baltimore Symphonic Chorale

Join the BSO in its annual tradition of Handel’s glorious oratorio, featuring the Concert Artists of Baltimore Symphonic Chorale led by conductor Edward Polochick.

Tickets from $25.

Family Concert Series

The Polar Express

For children ages 4 and up and their families

Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. – JMSH

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor

Andre McRae, baritone

The Peabody Children’s Chorus

Experience the magic of the holiday season by taking a ride on Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express, the timeless tale of a boy who still believes. As images from the book are projected onto the stage, the words on the pages of this Caldecott Medal winner will come to life through full orchestra and a children’s chorus. Arrive early for the Family Fun Zone, featuring face painting and a musical petting zoo, starting at 10 a.m. in the Meyerhoff lobby.

Tickets from $12.

Special Presentation

Hallelujah! A Community Sing-A-Long

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.—JMSH

Marin Alsop, conductor

Community Soloists

Community Singers

Hundreds of local singers will join the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for a community sing-a-long including selections from Handel’s Messiah and the re-vamped, jazzy version of this classical favorite, Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah.

Tickets $10 general admission.

To participate in the community chorus, please register at BSOmusic.org/TooHot by Nov. 13.

Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah

Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. – The Music Center at Strathmore

Friday, December 11, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. – JMSH/p>

Marin Alsop, conductor

Clifford Carter, piano

Bob Christianson, Hammond B-3 Organ

Mike Pope, bass

Clint de Ganon,

Tickets from $26.

Casual Concert Series

Too Hot to Handel: The Gospel Messiah

Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. – JMSH

Marin Alsop, conductor

Clifford Carter, piano

Bob Christianson, Hammond B-3 Organ

Mike Pope, bass

Clint de Ganon, drums

Experience “the jazziest, most soulful reinterpretation of Handel’s Messiah you’ll ever hear” (New York Post). Having thrilled audiences across the country, Too Hot to Handel takes the timeless brilliance of Handel’s classic oratorio and infuses it with a blend of jazz, gospel, rock and R&B. This casual concert series performance features the highlights of The Gospel Messiah in an hour-long program with no intermission.

Tickets from $26.

BSO at Frederick

Two Centuries of Strings

Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.—All Saints Episcopal Church

Madeline Adkins, violin

Rebecca Nichols, violin

Karin Brown, viola

Bo Li, cello

Michael Lisicky, oboe

Mozart: Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8

Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major, Op. 67

Tickets $20 general admission.

BSO’s Holiday Spectacular

Friday, December 18, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. – JMSH

Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. – JMSH

Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. – JMSH

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. – JMSH

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. – JMSH

Jack Everly, artistic director and conductor

Steven Reineke, guest conductor

Ann Hampton Callaway, host and vocalist

Daniel Okulitch, bass-baritone

Capitol Quartet

Holiday Spectacular Chorus and Dancers

Baltimore School for the Arts Dancers

Whirl into a winter wonderland with Ann Hampton Callaway as she hosts this musical extravaganza that has become Baltimore’s most popular holiday tradition! Jack Everly and Steven Reineke conduct more than 100 singers, dancers and musicians, a show-stopping troupe of tap-dancing Santas and special guests, the Capitol Quartet.

Adult tickets from $35, child tickets from $17.

While current at the time of publication, this calendar is subject to change. Updated calendars are issued regularly. For the most recent version, please contact the BSO Public Relations Office.

VENUES

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH): 1212 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, Md.

The Music Center at Strathmore: 5301 Tuckerman Lane, N. Bethesda, Md.

All Saints Episcopal Church: 106 West Church Street, Frederick, Md.

Todd Performing Arts Center: Chesapeake College, Wye Mills, Md.

TICKETS

Tickets for Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, The Music Center at Strathmore and BSO at Frederick performances are on sale now through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000, 877.BSO.1444 or BSOmusic.org.

Universality in Classical Music: Composing with thoughts toward the emotional empact

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:19:00 PDT

My son and I were having an interesting discussion talking about art. We started by talking about a number of other things, but eventually wound up talking method acting and truth in art. The point being there is no such thing as a truly method actor, because at some point the actor has to be aware they are just an actor on stage; they are not actually the character they are portraying. If they really were that character they would be confused as to why they were on stage and completely break from where the performance needs to go.

Sure, there is something to be said for getting “in” to a character, for understanding what their motivation is and how they are thinking in any given scene. If you’re playing a drunkard, then some understanding as to what it is to be drunk or an alcoholic might be important to making the role realistic. But that doesn’t mean you need to become an alcoholic to do the role well. What is really important is to find some element within yourself that resonates with the character you are portraying. Even more important, you need to find something your audience will resonate with so they believe your character is real. Chances are most of your audience will not be alcoholics so the “truth” you are looking for is perhaps more stereotypical, or as my son said, universal.

As humans, we are locked within ourselves, unable to actually experience what anyone else in the world is experiencing. We can occasionally share experiences, but this is more finding something within us that resonates with an external truth that also resonates with something within that other person. The external event may well be the same, but the experience internally is not. When our family pet died some years ago, although this event was difficult for everyone in the family, we all felt something slightly different and responded to it differently. Yes, we all cried and may still occasionally do so when we think back on the loss, but the feelings are not the same. However, what we do is “share” the experience by connecting with each other via some element through a universal feeling of loss.

Music is much the same way. Performers are trying to connect to the audience via universal truths, touching some element of their listeners emotions through moments of sound. Unlike film or stage, music doesn’t have words to convey these sentiments. Even in music with words, such as opera, the music is trying to communicate more than just what is written in the libretto. The music is trying to express the thoughts and feelings of the characters, to give insight into more and thereby reach a deeper plane of emotional response. Regardless as to how touching the story or wonderful the lyrics, if the music fails to strike an emotional chord with the audience the music fails.

One of the problems with some of the “new” music of today is the concept of cerebral composition, music written to excite an intellectual response rather than an emotional one. So much time is spent making the composition technically interesting, mathematically intriguing that the music fails to connect with the audience emotionally. However, because the composer is so emotionally excited by the intellectual pursuit they have an emotional connection to the music (and fail to understand why other’s don’t). This emotional excitement in their composition is not the same as music that emotionally connects with the audience.

There may not be a “universal” chord or melodic line that will reach each and every person on the planet (although, I’m not willing to say there isn’t one either). However, I do believe a composer needs to be aware of who their audience is when they are composing something. They need to think what sort of connection the music will have with that audience and how best to try and make that connection work - to be universal. This doesn’t mean cerebral music fails to connect. This just means that composing a piece of music without thinking of the emotional universality of it, means the connection is left to chance - and therefore more likely to fail to appeal, to connect, to resonate with the audience.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Combines Images and Music to Recreate Timeless Children’s Classic, The Polar Express, Dec. 5

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:39:00 PDT

Mei-Ann Chen leads baritone Andre McRae, the Peabody Children’s Chorus and the BSO for a seasonal concert, including a Holiday Sing-along

Baltimore, Md. (October 27, 2009)— Assistant Conductor and League of American Orchestras’ Conducting Fellow Mei-Ann Chen will lead baritone Andre McRae, the Peabody Children’s Chorus and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a recreation of Chris Van Allsburg’s The Polar Express on Saturday, December 5 at 11 a.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Van Allsburg’s picture book, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1986, tells the tale of a young boy who believes steadfastly in Santa and travels to the North Pole on the Polar Express. The illustrations of this beloved children’s book will be projected on a screen above the Orchestra. The concert will feature several other seasonal favorites, including Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Children’s Prayer” from Hansel and Gretel, as well as a holiday sing-a-long.

The BSO encourages patrons to arrival early to participate in the BSO Family Fun Zone, beginning at 10 a.m. in the Meyerhoff lobby. Children and their families can take advantage of numerous free, age-appropriate activities, including Port Discovery Children’s Museum’s interactive World Rhythm Drum Circus, the Maryland Zoo’s ZOOmobile, an instrument petting zoo and face painting.

COMPLETE CONCERT DETAILS
Family Concert: The Polar Express
For children ages 4 and up and their families
Saturday, December 5 at 11:00 a.m.—Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

Doors open at 10 a.m. for BSO Family Fun Zone.

Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
Andre McRae, baritone
Peabody Children’s Chorus
Doreen Falby, Director
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Tickets for this performance range from $12 to $20 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 877.BSO.1444, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org.

Fair Pay for Fair Work - Composers Considering Unionizing

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:13:00 PDT

Variety has an interesting article about the state of things for The Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL). They are considering joining with Teamsters Local 399 because right now they are considered "Independent Contractors" due to a ruling in the Regan era. According to the article composers are writing upwards of twice as much music as they were 30 years ago but being paid 14% of what they were making. So, studios are getting more and paying less.

The American Composers Forum is another organization bent on getting fair pay for fair work for composers. Established in the 1973 as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the Forum tries to connect composers with the community - with the idea of creating a means for composers to earn a living.

Screen writers wreaked havoc with Hollywood a few years back trying to get some portion of DVD sales. Music, which has become a huge marketing tool for television and film is given the same sort of slip claiming the rights to the music providing one time fees denies all future revenue streams (and potential uses of the music).

Not sure where this is going, but as a composer - worth watching!

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein to Perform at the White House Music Series November 4

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:03:00 PDT

Ms. Weilerstein to join violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Sharon Isbin and pianist Awadagin Pratt

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein will take part in the next White House Music Series event that will focus on classical music on Wednesday, November 4. Ms. Weilerstein is one of four performers invited to take part in the event that will include student workshops for 120 middle and high school students followed by an evening concert featuring Ms. Weilerstein, violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Sharon Isbin and pianist Awadagin Pratt in the East Room.

The White House Music Series was created by First Lady Michelle Obama to celebrate the arts, demonstrate the importance of arts education and to encourage young people who believe in their talent to create a future for themselves in the arts community be it as a hobby or as a profession. Previous White House events have featured jazz, country and Latin musicians.

“It was definitely an extremely exciting and thrilling moment when I received the invitation and I am proud and honored to be taking part in this event,” said Ms. Weilerstein. “It is so gratifying to see the arts being embraced by the current administration and the message that music is an important and essential part of American life is certainly one I support.”

In addition to the student workshops that will be introduced by Mrs. Obama, Ms. Weilerstein will perform duets with two child protégés, cellist Sujari Britt and marimba player Jason Yoder. President Obama will make remarks at the evening concert that will feature the four musicians performing solo works and that will be streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov and rebroadcast on SIRIUS XM Radio’s Symphony Hall channel, SIRIUS channel 80 and XM channel 78 over the weekend.

Twenty-seven-year-old Ms. Weilerstein has attracted widespread attention for playing that combines a natural virtuosic command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship. The intensity and passion of her playing has regularly been lauded, as has the spontaneity and sensitivity of her interpretations. New York magazine has described her as “…arguably Yo-Yo Ma’s heiress apparent as sovereign of the American cello.”

Following the White House event, Ms. Weilerstein will perform Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Peter Oundjian in Philadelphia on November 6, 7 and 8. The following week she will perform three free one-hour recitals of Bach’s Solo Cello Suites in New York on November 10, 11 and 12 at Columbia University’s Philosophy Hall.

Ms. Weilerstein, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was nine, is a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and will mark World Diabetes Day on Saturday, November 14. Ms. Weilerstein meets with members of the local chapters of JDRF when she tours with the aim of communicating to young people that living with and managing type 1 diabetes does not stop you from doing anything you want to do. In June she conveyed this message to delegates at the JDRF’s Children’s Congress in Washington as a member of a role model panel.

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst’s live recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 released on DVD October 27

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:59:00 PDT

Recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland in September 2008

CLEVELAND, October 27, 2009 – The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst’s live recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 will be available on DVD from Tuesday, October 27 in the United States .

Recorded by WVIZ/PBS ideastream® at the Orchestra’s home, Severance Hall in Cleveland, during subscription concerts on September 25 and 26, 2008, the recording is the Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst’s third Bruckner DVD. Clasart produced the recording, which will be distributed by Arthaus. The Cleveland Orchestra and Clasart have had a long-term partnership resulting in all three Bruckner DVDs. The Cleveland Orchestra acknowledges both Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich and Clasart for their generous support of the DVD release.

The new DVD represents an ongoing collaboration with WVIZ/PBS ideastream. On June 11, 2008, PBS broadcast “The Cleveland Orchestra in Performance: Bruckner Symphony No. 5,” recorded in the Abbey of St. Florian in Linz, Austria, by Clasart and produced for U.S. broadcast by WVIZ/PBS. For 15 years, WVIZ/PBS has been the video production partner for The Cleveland Orchestra’s annual “Star-Spangled Spectacular Concert and Festival” at Public Square in downtown Cleveland .

Born in Linz, Austria, Franz Welser-Möst often performs and records the music of Austrian composer Anton Bruckner – who famously served as organist at the Abbey of St. Florian, just outside Linz. Mr. Welser-Möst has led The Cleveland Orchestra in video recordings of live performances of Bruckner symphonies made in other historic concert venues: Symphony No. 5 in the Abbey of St. Florian, and Symphony No. 9 in Vienna’s Musikverein. During the 2009-10 season, The Cleveland Orchestra will perform Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 under the direction of Mr. Welser-Möst and in 2011, will begin a new multi-year residency in New York at the Lincoln Center Festival leading four concerts juxtaposing Anton Bruckner symphonies nos. 5, 7, 8 and 9 with works by John Adams July 13-17 (full program details to be confirmed). As part of the 2011 residency, Mr. Welser-Möst will also return to The Juilliard School to rehearse a Bruckner symphony with the Juilliard Orchestra for the second time.

The release of the new Bruckner DVD continues The Cleveland Orchestra’s expanded electronic media presence under Franz Welser-Möst’s music directorship. In September, the Orchestra released a Decca recording featuring Mitsuko Uchida and the Orchestra performing Mozart’s piano concertos nos. 23 and 24. This season, the Orchestra records an all-Wagner recording for Deutsche Grammophon as part of a multi-disc recording project.

The Cleveland Orchestra has received eight Grammy Awards and 31 Grammy nominations. In addition to recordings released on commercial labels, The Cleveland Orchestra has itself produced five sets of archival recordings: the 75th Anniversary Compact Disc Edition, the George Szell Centennial Compact Disc Edition, the Christoph von Dohnányi Compact Disc Edition, George Szell – Live in Tokyo 1970 (Szell’s last recorded concert), and the Robert Shaw Legacy Compact Disc Edition.

Throughout his career, Franz Welser-Möst has made numerous critically acclaimed recordings. His recording of Franz Schmidt’s Symphony No. 4 won a Gramophone Award for Best Orchestral Recording. More recent releases include HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!!, Schmidt’s The Book of the Seven Seals, and the world-premiere recording of Johann Strauss Jr.’s Simplicius with the Zurich Opera Orchestra, which won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis. In addition to audio recordings, Mr. Welser-Möst has an extensive number of DVD releases with the Zurich Opera. His DVD recording of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier with the Zurich Opera won a 2005 Diapason d’Or award.

Maurizio Pollini's First Recording of Bach

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:33:00 PDT

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 Releases November 17 on Deutsche Grammophon

New York, NY (October 27, 2009) – World-renowned pianist Maurizio Pollini releases his first-ever recording of Bach on Deutsche Grammophon, available November 17, 2009. With a career that has already spanned almost 50 years (he was awarded first prize in the 1960 Chopin competition), Pollini continues to challenge himself both on stage and in the recording studio.

Recording a composer for the first time is always a milestone, recording a composer for the first time after performing for almost 50 years is a unique milestone, and when that composer is Bach and the pianist is Pollini the recording becomes a major event. This project, a summit meeting of two masters, has been in the making for decades. Pollini has regularly performed Bach and specifically selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier for more than twenty years in concert but has only just now chosen to record this landmark work and composer.

The impact of Bach’s work is well known, not only to musicologists but also most anyone who has ever taken a piano lesson. The Prelude in C is universally known for its simplicity and beauty and Schumann even made the recommendation to “let the ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ be your daily bread” in 1850, over 100 years after Bach’s book was compiled. Not only are the preludes and fugues in every major and minor key great exercises for any keyboard player, but they are also brilliant little works of surprising genius and wit.

The preludes take on a number of different characteristics and styles throughout, from arpeggios to inventions to toccata-like works. The fugues demonstrate Bach’s unique gift for combining melody, structure and counterpoint. Taken as a whole, they demonstrate many different techniques and contrapuntal procedures and range from rigorously formal to more freely composed. Of the 24 fugues, eleven are in three parts, ten in four, one in two, and two for five voices.

With few selections lasting over four minutes, and most averaging only two, each piece is a jewel of ingenuity. Though each is a small delight when enjoyed alone, the summation of The Well-Tempered Clavier is a feast for the ears. Pollini is no stranger to tackling iconic works and bringing his unique insight to every style of music. The winner of two Grammy® awards (1979 for Bartok and 2006 for Chopin), he is internationally regarded as one of today’s premiere pianists and has remained both an audience and critical favorite for close to 50 years. Though it has been a long time coming, some recordings are well worth the wait.

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's Gala Nets more than $800k - "Proclaimed a Success"

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:43:00 PDT

Superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma plays to SRO Powell Hall for SLSO’s first gala in a decade

“A Noteworthy Affair,” the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra’s first gala event since 1999, has been "proclaimed a huge success, both artistically and in terms of fundraising," announced SLSO President and Executive Director Fred Bronstein . Guest artist Yo-Yo Ma performed Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with Music Director David Robertson conducting the SLSO, to a standing-room-only audience at Powell Hall on October 24, 2009. Robertson and the SLSO also performed Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished,” at the start of the evening.

After the concert, more than 500 guests were transported by shuttle from Powell Hall to the Coronado Ballroom for an evening of dining and dancing. The Steve Schankman Orchestra provided the entertainment. The Gala committee was chaired by Noémi Neidorff, with co-chairs Peggy Ritter and Marsha Rusnack. The sponsor for “A Noteworthy Affair” was Centene Corporation.

Bronstein reported that the Gala event netted more than $800,000 for the SLSO. ‘“A Noteworthy Affair’ was first of all a fundraiser,” Bronstein said. “It was also another way in which we sought to build the brand and build the visibility of the orchestra. We wanted to create a signature event—a not-to-be-missed evening. And we wanted people to have a really wonderful time. I think we succeeded on all counts.”

Founded in 1880, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is the second-oldest orchestra in the country and is widely considered one of the world’s finest. In September 2005, internationally acclaimed conductor David Robertson became the 12th Music Director and second American-born conductor in the Orchestra’s history. Currently in the 130th season - the SLSO continues to strive for artistic excellence, fiscal responsibility and community connection. In addition to its regular concert performances at Powell Hall, the SLSO is an integral part of the St. Louis community, presenting more than 250 free education and community partnership programs each year. In June 2008, the SLSO launched Building Our Business which takes a proactive, two-pronged approach: build audiences and re-invigorate the SLSO brand making the SLSO and Powell Hall the place to be; and build the base for enhanced institutional commitment and donations. This is all part of a larger strategic plan adopted in May 2009 that includes new core ideology and a 10-year strategic vision focusing on artistic and institutional excellence, doubling the existing audience, and revenue growth across all key operating areas.

Guildhall School presents The Songs of Johannes Brahms with Graham Johnson

noreply@blogger.com (Chip Michael) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:40:00 PDT

Following on from his acclaimed series Brahms, his Friends, Rivals and Contemporaries at the Wigmore Hall, renowned accompanist Graham Johnson has devised a short series of song recitals centred around the songs of Johannes Brahms for the Guildhall School. Senior singers and pianists from the School perform with introductions by Graham Johnson.

Graham Johnson, Senior Professor of Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, studied in London where he went on to build up his reputation as a distinguished accompanist. During his career of over 30 years Graham has accompanied many high profile singers and has recently worked on a Brahms Lieder series with Dame Felicity Lott. He was named ‘Instrumentalist of the Year 1998’ by the Royal Philharmonic Society and elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2000. In 1994 Graham was made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

24 November & 1 December 2009, 1.05pm
26 November & 2 December 2009, 7pm
Music Hall / Lecture Recital Room, Guildhall School